Pink, Pink, Pink! Make it to celebrate your favorite Barbie doll or movie...or for that special someone's Birthday!
This is a fun Birthday COOKIE CAKE to make out of extra-large sugar cookies, flavored with strawberry extract for a delicious flavor. Bake the layers in 6” cake pans for uniformity. It’s easy!
Celebrate Barbie’s new movie or make the cookie cake for someone special, like my sister, Nancy. She grew up with Barbie dolls, so this birthday cookie cake is designed just for her. The cookie cake is easy to layer with almond flavored buttercream and pink, pink, pink sprinkles. Top it off with Barbie’s initial B, made out of pink colored candy melts. Color it with gel food coloring made specifically for candy melts and you can get it just the right bright pink color for your special event.
First make the cookie dough. It’s easy. Sift the dry ingredients and set aside. Beat the other items until fluffy. Add the dry mixture to develop a soft dough. Layer the dough over parchment paper in the small cake pans so the layers all come out as one uniform size.
This recipe makes a total of six 6” cookie layers. Use 5 for the cookie cake to give away and keep one layer for yourself. Or, make the cake into 6 layers for a tall presentation. Pipe the buttercream frosting onto each layer. It’s a naked layer cake (no frosting on the sides) so it takes less time, and the uniform piping in between layers will create a pretty scalloped edging. Pipe frosting on the top and decorate with pink, pink, pink sprinkles.
Don’t’ forget the B initial. Melt and color your candy melts pink. Design a Barbie “B” on a sheet of paper for your pattern. Pipe the warm candy melt onto parchment paper and cool. Use the bright pink “B” as the focal point on your cake, whether you place it on top or on the side. Pretty in Pink!
Prep six 6” cake pans: Lightly brush the pans on the bottoms and sides with butter.
Cut parchment paper to fit in the bottoms (circles) and sides (strips) of the pans.
Preheat your oven to 350F degrees.
Giant Cookie Dough
1 C Butter, soft
½ C Shortening, white
1 ½ C Sugar
2 Eggs
1 t Vanilla extract
1 ½ t Strawberry extract
Pink gel food coloring
½ C Cornstarch
2 t Baking powder
3 ½ C Flour
White Buttercream Frosting:
¼ C Butter, soft
¼ C Shortening, white, room temp
4 C Powdered sugar
¼ C Milk or heavy cream
1 t Vanilla extract
2 t Almond extract
PINK, Pink, pink sprinkles. (I like to use the tiny skinny disc sprinkles that come in 3 different colors of pink.)
Dried Strawberries, crumbled, optional
Script the B initial:
- First, draw out a thick version of the B initial on a sheet of paper with a pink marker. I use a pink marker so I can test the size of the initial on the cake. It’s easier to eye it up with a pink initial rather than with a black initial.
- Tape the paper onto a small cookie sheet so you can eventually place the wet initial into the refrigerator to cool and solidify.
- Melt the bright pink candy melts according to package directions. Don’t worry about melting too many of the candy melts. You can always cool and solidify the leftover candy melts and reuse.
- Allow to cool a bit, but still pourable, and pour into a piping bag.
- Snip a small piece off the point of the bag.
- Place a piece of parchment paper on top of your Pink initial sheet in the small cookie sheet.
- Test to see if the candy melts flow properly. Snip a little more off from the bag if you need a thicker flow.
- On the parchment paper, carefully outline the initial B and fill in the center of all the lines.
- Place the pan in the refrigerator and allow to cool about 20 minutes until solid.
- If you have ragged outer edges, you can trim those after the initial has completely cooled.
- If you need to expand some curves, or get rid of air bubbles, before cooling, use a toothpick. A little practice will help. That’s why I melt extra candy melts…just in case I need to make a new one.
- You can remelt any leftover candy melts and pour onto a piece of parchment paper. Cool the leftovers in the refrigerator and store away in a plastic zipper bag for later use.
NOTE: Skip the B initial and create the initial of your special Birthday person, also using their favorite colors for the frosting.
Stir up your cookie dough:
- Sift the dry ingredients together into a medium mixing bowl and set aside.
- Beat the butter, shortening and sugar together until fluffy.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, beating and scraping down the sides of the bowl after each egg.
- Add the extracts and beat in thoroughly.
- Add a few drops of the pink gel food coloring until you get the color you like. It’s easier to beat in the food coloring now rather than after adding the dry mixture. I like to make it a little darker than I think I want it to end up, since it may fade a little after you add the dry mix.
- Add the dry mixture and slowly beat together, then increase the speed to thoroughly combine. It should form a soft dough.
- Divide the cookie cake dough equally between the six small cake pans. Lightly smooth the dough so each pan of dough has a fairly smooth top. I use a small child’s silicone spatula for smoothing the top and tapping down around the edge to get a nice edge on the finished cookie cake layers.
- NOTE: I don’t have 6 of the 6” cake pans, so I bake two at a time in my smaller oven. That works perfectly for me. If you have 6 pans, that’s a plus! I have not tried this, but if you like a more rustic cookie cake, try baking them all on a cookie sheet, using your hands to delicately flatten the dough and form them into fairly similar circular layers with similar thicknesses.
- Bake the cookies at 350F degrees for 13-17 minutes, until they are golden around the edges and set in the middle. I check the cookies at the 13-minute mark. I don’t like to let them bake too long or they will become too dry in the middle.
- Take out of the oven and leave the cookies in the pans for 10 minutes to let them continue baking.
- When cooled, cover with a small overturned plate and turn the whole thing upside down to pop the cookie cake layer out of the pan. Discard the parchment papers.
- Cool the cake layers further, stacking them between parchment paper, in the refrigerator or freezer until you are ready to frost. Be sure to wrap the in plastic wrap and then store in an airtight container or plastic zipper bags.
- NOTE: I have made these cookie cake layers a couple weeks ahead and frozen them until I was ready to frost and decorate. Just let them thaw in the refrigerator or on the counter before unwrapping them.
Stir together your buttercream frosting:
- Beat together the butter and shortening until fluffy.
- Gradually and slowly beat in the powdered sugar, adding a little milk at a time until you get the right consistency. You might not use all the milk, or you may decide to add more.
- Beat in the extracts.
- Beat until the buttercream frosting is fluffy.
- If you want pink frosting, add the gel food coloring at the end. I left my buttercream white since I wanted a contrast for the layers of pink cookie cake and a contrast for the pink, pink, pink sprinkles on top.
- Once you have the color you want, white or pink, spoon the buttercream into a piping bag or plastic zipper bag. I don’t use a piping tip for this cake. I just want to pipe round dollops, so after I have the frosting in the piping bag, I’ll snip off the point of the bag, according to the size of frosting dollops I want.
Assemble your cookie cake:
- On a cake board, spread a little frosting to keep the cookie cake from sliding around.
- Lay down the first layer of cookie cake and pipe dollops of buttercream frosting around the top edge. Then pipe circles of frosting in the center.
- Gently lay down the next layer and repeat with the buttercream frosting. Press the cookie layer down just a tad in order to press the round dollops outward for a pretty scalloped edging.
- Repeat with all the layers. NOTE: You could opt to make a couple cakes of 3 layers each, or one cake of five layers (saving one layer for yourself) or a taller cake with 6 layers.
- On the top of the very top layer, pipe uniform dollops of buttercream all around the outside edge. Continue with rows of dollops around the inside of the top layer.
- Sprinkle with the pink, pink, pink sprinkles.
- Delicately lay your bright pink B initial on top of the cake or on the side of the cake. If you want to use it on the side of the cake, put a couple of dollops of buttercream on the back of the initial and carefully press it onto the side.
Serve it up! Lift the cookie layers off for a unique way of serving:
- This cookie cake doesn’t have to be cut like a normal layer cake, from top to bottom. Because these cookie cake layers are stronger than a regular cake layer, it’s easy to slide a thin wide offset spatula under the first layer and lift up and off the top of the cake.
- Place it on a platter and slice it in four pieces for serving like a frosted cookie.
- You can do the same with the other layers, too, lifting off one or two layers at a time (like a large sandwich cookie!) and cutting into pieces to serve.
-It’s a fun way to serve up this special treat! Yum!
Whether you make this fun sugar cookie cake to celebrate Barbie or your special someone’s Birthday, it’s easy to frost and decorate. Have fun! Make it in other colors or even confetti colors and “Bake your own Memories!”